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Tuesday, May 14, 2013

Wigan does more than salvage a season

Going into the FA Cup Final Wigan Athletic knew if they didn’t pull off what was perceived to be a miraculous upset, their incredible run would soon be forgotten as just another great tournament run by a Cinderella club that met its end when faced by a top level club. Perhaps even more at stake was the salvation of a season that started with much optimism, hoping to improve on last season’s 15th place finish as they were reminded that they were only two wins away from finishing in the top 10. However, after dropping three of their last six matches and falling below the water level of relegation, the club could change their fortunes from calamity to historic with a win over the defending EPL Champions Manchester City in the FA Cup Final.
The match itself wasn’t one for the purist as there was no scoring until the 90th minute despite Wigan having a one man advantage due to a terrible challenge by City’s Pablo Zabaleta that set the stage for their grand exit. But don’t let that be the only stat you pay attention to as the game was statistically even in all of the 19 major match stats that are kept, all except goals scored.
This was a victory for David, for the little guy, for the little train that could. 81 years without a piece of hardware to show for it. The giant fell to the ground and the rumbles could be herd all the way to the City of Manchester Stadium where the first head to roll after the consternation of having to close the trophy case without making any additions was manager Roberto Mancini
True there have been some upsets where the goliath had a bigger name and most supporters will always have an upset by their own club to call the biggest but there is no arguing the fact that City’s 187 million payroll dwarfs Wigan’s 12 by the largest margin in FA Cup history and I’ll put that disparity up against any of the other biggest upsets in history regardless of tournament. This was one for the ages and unfortunately it will have to carry the Wigan faithful supporters clear for another 12 months until they can get back to the competing in the top division again as the Gunners need to win two straight matches to qualify for the Champions League next year and the little train that could is standing on the tracks in front of the Gunner’s freight train and that loss will send them down for the summer. However the wild ride won’t be forgotten in our lifetime and something tells me we haven’t seen the last of David.
View the complete EPL final week here.